Illus. by with photographs in black & white by Warren Chappell. Jacket. First Edition. NY: Knopf, [1958].

A classic of mid-century food literature, Root first published this in 1958 (and later wrote its companion,  The Food of Italy), about the gastronomy of the different regions of France. Traveling through the provinces, cities, and remote country towns that make up France, Waverley Root discovers not only the Calvados and Camembert cheese of Normandy, the haute cuisine of Paris, and the hearty bouillabaisse of Marseilles, but also the local histories, customs, and geographies that shape the French national character. Here are the origins of the Plantagenet kings and Rabelais’s favorite truffle-flavored sausages, and the tale of how the kitchens of Versailles cooked for one thousand aristocrats and four thousand servants in a single day. Here, too, are notes on the proper time of year to harvest snails; the Moorish influences on the confections of the Pyrenees, where the plumpest geese are raised; and the age of the oldest olive tree in Provence. In short, here is France for the chef, the traveler, and the connoisseur of fine prose, with maps and line drawings throughout.

Chipping to jacket ends, small pieces of jacket lacking from jacket extremities; owner's name to front pastedown, still very good and bright.